From the Editor May/Jun 2024
Ever since God promised the land of Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob nearly 4,000 years ago, a yearning to live in this Holy Land…
ZIONISM
The Battle to Define Antisemitism
If we were to title the last 10 years of American cultural history, we might dub them “The Age of Redefinition.”…
The Thin Line Disappears
For decades, people who opposed the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East have claimed they are…
Inside View May/Jun 2023
On our tours to the Holy Land, I teach each group about modern Israel. Many Christians don’t realize what it took to bring a country into existence…
Tolerance for Some: Antisemitism in the Age of Social Justice
Victims of injustice have long found hope in the story of the Israelites…
Happy Birthday, Israel!
In a small room in faraway British Mandate Palestine, Jewish statesman David Ben-Gurion rose to his feet before an assembly of Jewish dignitaries…
Anti-Zionism: The Modern Antisemitism
“There’s going to be an anti-Israel protest downtown,” my friend said. “I think we need to do something.” The next day, we…
Coming Home
For millennia, the Jewish people have held a hope in their hearts, a dream embodied in the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah.” That dream is “to be a free nation…
Jewish World Update May/Jun 2022
Amnesty International’s outrageous report calling Israel an “apartheid state” has brought nearly all of the Jewish world…
Jewish World Update Mar/Apr 2022
The Jewish and non-Jewish political left has wildly denounced U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett…
Jewish World Update Nov/Dec 2021
It appears Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) may have finally gone too far in her ongoing campaign to demonize…
Like William Henry Hechler
Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, considered William Henry Hechler the first Christian Zionist…
No Place Like Home
A bump on the head and a trip to Oz was all it took for Dorothy to realize there’s no place like home. Dorothy is the main character in L. Frank Baum’s children’s book…
Jewish World Update Sep/Oct 2020
If a large percentage of Jewish people in America are liberal and don’t support President Donald Trump, why is Trump…
Jewish World Update Mar/Apr 2019
In response to the increasing anti-Semitic attacks in France, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed Diaspora Affairs and Education Minister…
Jewish World Update Jan/Feb 2019
Pro-Israel students at Columbia University in New York City recently hosted a protest against the school’s “pervasively hostile environment” toward Zionist students…
Making Something Out of Nothing
Somehow Israel always seems to find itself in the middle of a controversy. Israel’s parliament recently passed a bill called the Jewish Nation-State Law, and immediately it made headlines around the world…
The Flap Over Israel’s Nation-State Law
The Knesset recently enacted a new law that declares Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and that they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it…
Jewish World Update Nov/Dec 2018
“Holocaust memory and Jews are under attack [in Europe],” said Elisha Wiesel, commenting on the recent desecration of the childhood home of his late father, renowned…
Israel Has the Right Idea
Universities have become a hotbed of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic activity. Students call Israel a “terrorist state” and encourage others to engage in “intifada” and violence. Professors compare Israel to Nazi Germany and peddle the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement…
U.S. Quits UNHRC ‘Cesspool’
After more than a year of warnings, the Trump administration has followed through on a pledge to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), calling it a “cesspool of political bias…”
The Man Who Believed in Miracles
If you hold an American passport and were born in Jerusalem, this might be the time to get your document updated. Perhaps now, 70 years after Israel gained its independence, the U.S. State Department will finally print “Jerusalem, Israel” on your passport…
Jewish World Update Sep/Oct 2018
“You are the ammunition for Hamas’s guns; you are the warheads for its missiles,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the UN General Assembly when it recently condemned Israel for…
Happy Birthday, Israel!
For years I had a dream. I wanted my hometown baseball team (the Cleveland Indians) to play the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. I had adopted the Cubs when I lived in Chicago. Both teams excelled at losing…
The Cyber War Against Israel
Facebook. YouTube. Instagram. Twitter. For most of us, these sites serve as entertaining outlets where we post pictures, share opinions, and watch videos of cats (so I’m told) or of a deer eating a snowman. (That one was viewed several hundred thousand times.) But for Israel, social-media platforms have become…
Five Facts You Should Know About Israel
Have you ever wondered why the Jewish people have been scattered throughout the nations of the world more consistently than any other people? Why anti–Semitism persists in rearing its ugly head repeatedly throughout history? Why Nazism specifically targeted the Jewish people for genocide in the…
Inside View Nov/Dec 2017
Earlier this year, as I was looking back at the beginning of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, I turned to the first issue of Israel My Glory, published in December 1942—only four years after the ministry began.
A Wow Moment
The beat goes on as the Arabs pick up where the Ammonites left off. Have you ever read a Scripture verse you had read many times before, but suddenly it seemed brand new to you? I have. I call it a Wow! moment. My most recent Wow! moment came after reading Judges 11: “And the…
Inside View Sep/Oct 2017
On our spring Up to Jerusalem tour, we made a stop at the headquarters of The Jewish Agency for Israel in Jerusalem to deliver funds donated to help Jewish people in other parts of the world…
Getting Back to Basics
I was sitting in the front row at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC, when Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer made a statement that drew applause from the Christian leaders in the room: “The stronger the Christian identity…
Miracle at Be’er Sheva
Few people probably associate Australia and New Zealand with the Balfour Declaration. But here is a look at a little-known miracle that helped to shape that segment of history.
Inside View Jul/Aug 2017
Have you ever noticed the world’s fascination with hating the Jewish people? It’s nothing new. Anti-Semitism has been around since the days of the Old Testament. However, its growth today is alarming, particularly in the United States and Europe.
The ‘Fake News’ Frenzy
Based on the laws of supply and demand, truth has become a valuable commodity. If it were tea, its scarcity would make it extremely expensive. As we are inundated with the activist media’s half-truths and lies, which some call “fake news,” the real thing is…
From the Editor May/Jun 2017
June 1967 was a good time to be Jewish. At least it seemed that way to me. I was a teenager during the Six-Day War, and I was so proud of the Israeli soldiers. Not only were they fighting for their country, but they were fighting…
Inside View May/Jun 2017
Does God fight for Israel? When Israel triumphs over multiple Arab armies attacking on multiple fronts, it certainly seems that God fights for Israel. Such was the case in 1967 when Israel won a humanly improbable…
Ma’ale Adumim: It’s Not What You Think It Is
Before we arrived in the spring of 2000, I asked the 16 members of our Friends of Israel Youth Adventure team (now called ORIGINS) to describe what they thought a settlement would look like.
Six Days In June
When the 1967 Six-Day War erupted, the Jewish state had just celebrated 19 years of independence. Levi Eshkol, 71, was both prime minister and defense minister. Eshkol had replaced the legendary David Ben-Gurion in June 1963. Filling Ben-Gurion’s shoes…
Message in the Wall
Sounds of gunfire, soldiers singing “Jerusalem of Gold,” and the faint sound of a shofar were heard over the army wireless. It was June 7, 1967, and the Israel Defense Forces paratroopers had just liberated the Temple Mount and Western Wall.
Fifty Years Later
The Six-Day War begot the hackneyed catchphrase Israeli-occupied West Bank. Mindless talk of the “occupation” generally goes hand-in-hand with unvarnished ignorance or a willful disregard of the area’s strategic value.
The End of an Era
U.S. President James Madison served alongside Presidents George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was known as the “Father of the Constitution,” and his death…
From Cornfields to Kotel
I am not a Jew. I feel I should make that clear from the beginning. I don’t keep kosher. I don’t like gefilte fish. And the first time someone called me a “mensch,” I thought he was insulting me. No, I will never be mistaken for a Jewish man…
Inside View May/Jun 2016
Jewish people often ask us, “How long have there been Christians who support Israel?” Over the years, we have come to appreciate their question because Christians, more than any other group, have persecuted and tortured the Jews for two millennia…
Kudos to Canada
When Canada’s parliament condemned the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel in February, Israel advocates worldwide probably sighed with relief. BDS is a vicious, anti-Semitic movement that is…
Jesus, Zionism, and the Millennial Generation
Creativity, liberalism, cultural awareness, and selfies all describe my generation—Generation Y, or the Millennial Generation. But what probably characterizes us…
Inside View Sep/Oct 2015
Do you ever feel like you want to do something to help Israel in addition to praying? That was how we felt when we started the Israel Relief Fund many years ago.
Former Ambassador Michael Oren Calls Christian Support for Israel ‘Crucial’ In Special Interview With JNS.org
Seemingly lost in all the debate over U.S.-Israel relations is that Member of Knesset Michael Oren’s new book, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, is a memoir—and the memoir covers more than the…
Inside View Jul/Aug 2015
Not long ago I attended a first-ever conference titled “People of the Land: A Twenty-First Century Case for Christian Zionism” in Washington, DC. It was an evangelical response to…
Ariel: City of Visionaries
When 40 families stood atop a craggy mountain overlooking the wilderness of Samaria in 1978 and scanned the barren wasteland that would become their home…
Inside View Jan/Feb 2015
When high school graduates in the United States head off to college or work, Israeli graduates enter the military. Men are required to serve for three years and women for two. Men remain…
Inside View Sep/Oct 2014
This issue of Israel My Glory examines the growing anti-Zionist movement within evangelical Christianity, especially among the Millennial generation—those born between…
Eye on the Middle East Jul/Aug 2014
It doesn’t matter what you’re doing––bathing your 2-year-old, fixing dinner, or sleeping. You have only 11 seconds to run for safety from an incoming rocket when the siren…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2014
An anti-Semitic cartoon published recently in Hamas’s official daily newspaper tries to scare away new immigrants to Israel and threaten everyone living there with genocide.
Eye on the Middle East May/Jun 2014
Sometimes it boggles the mind to see who some of the people are who withhold support from the State of Israel. The controversy is starting to die down now, but New York City Mayor…
FOI Cosponsors Event in Manhattan
Park East Synagogue in New York City was the venue in October for an Honor Israel night, cosponsored by The Friends of Israel (FOI) and American Friends of Rambam Medical Center (AFORAM).
Christian Anti-Zionism: On the Wrong Side of History, Justice, and the Bible
In June 1982, Israel decided enough was enough. After setting up new headquarters in Lebanon in the early 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Yasser Arafat launched…
NFL Hall of Famer Raymond Berry Speaks of His Love for Jesus and Israel
In football lore, it is the Greatest Game Ever Played. On December 28, 1958, in front of 64,185 freezing spectators who filled Yankee Stadium in New York City and another 45 million television viewers…
Inside View Mar/Apr 2013
The super-sized, thousand-mile-wide Hurricane Sandy set its sights directly at us here in southern New Jersey. I witnessed God’s incredible…
Wingate the Zionist
An aircraft suddenly plunged to earth and burst into flames. The cause for the crash near Imphal, India, on March 24, 1944, has remained a mystery. All nine men aboard…
The New Anti-Semitism
Since the birth of modern Israel in 1948, a new form of anti-Semitism has emerged. Rather than attacking the Jewish people directly, it claims to oppose only Zionism…
John Henry Patterson
In 1898, English engineer John Henry Patterson was sent to Kenya to build a bridge over the Tsavo River. But two ferocious lions were terrorizing and eating his workmen.
Molding the Next Generation of Anti-Semites
Incoming freshman Ariel Kaplan and his parents had no idea what they were walking into when they arrived on the campus of the University of California (UC), Berkeley….
Ariel and Israel Advocacy
Ariel is a native Californian. He considers himself moderately religious, though he possesses a strong Jewish identity due to his family’s affiliation with “modern Orthodox”…
Inside View Jul/Aug 2012
I rejoiced in the Lord as I flew home recently from Israel after leading our first adult-volunteer Hesed Project trip. In the two weeks our 13 team members worked at Kaplan…
Has the Dream Lost Its Luster?
When Zionism first appeared, it bore the dreams of a persecuted people and had the blessing of much of the Western world. A lot has changed over the years, as you’ll see here.
Christian Zionism—The Real Story
The heat is up on the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma. The current offensive touts a single state that eliminates Israel in favor of a Palestinian fiefdom…
Thank God for Israel
Do you have a love for Israel and the Jewish people and don’t know quite where to go with it? We know a way you can tell them how you feel. And it’s terrific!
FOI Launches Adult-Volunteer Program in Israel
If you are 18 or older and would like to volunteer your time, effort, and resources to help the people of Israel, then you may want to join us in March…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Mar/Apr 2011
In 1950, a mere two years after the birth of the modern State of Israel, a historic conference was convened by then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jan/Feb 2011
“I’ve rarely felt such fellowship and trust among Christians and Jews.” That’s how Jewish author Dr. Stephen Spector reflected on a remarkable event held recently at Ohev Shalom in Richboro…
Why Christians Should Be Zionists
Today Zionism has become a dirty word. Yet if any people should be Zionists, it should be Christians. Here’s why.
Getting the Gist of J Street
A new movement is afoot to strip Israel of its Jewish identity. And, remarkably, the people propelling it are Jewish.
Z Street: The Zionist Answer to J Street
Not all American Jews are happy with J Street. In fact, in July 2009 Lori Lowenthal Marcus cofounded a rebuttal: Z Street. “The Z stands for Zionism,” she said in a telephone…
Turning Their Backs on a Jewish Israel
Eleven years ago, Israeli-born Meyrav Wurmser, then-executive director of the distinguished Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), wrote an article titled “Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism?” Israel, she said, was “in the midst…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk May/Jun 2010
On my first trip to Israel in 1989, I remember thinking how much the Israelis struggled to live in the land of God’s promise. Soaring inflation, high unemployment, and persistent…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Mar/Apr 2010
Many Jewish people these days are increasingly inquisitive about the unique phenomenon of Christian support for Israel in the face of growing anti-Israel sentiment worldwide. They want to know what really…
We Answer to a Higher Authority
Christian Zionists have a deep commitment to Israel. Learn what motivates their love and how they are perceived by the Jewish community.
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jan/Feb 2010
A dynamic factor in the Jewish people’s prophetic return to Zion is a special group of several thousand young men and women designated as “lone soldiers.” Leaving everything behind, including their families…
The ‘Danger’ of Christian Zionism
Thus read the first line of a December 2008 news release from the National Council of Churches (NCC). So exercised is this liberal federation of mainline denominations, which claims to represent…
Operation Love Israel
Thousands of Philadelphians braved the traffic and cold recently to tell the world they love Israel and would stand by it through its war with Hamas terrorists. The noon rally…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Sep/Oct 2008
When Bethel Baptist Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, celebrated the modern State of Israel’s 60th anniversary, it went all out! The congregation staged a biblically based, three-act dramatic performance of The Life of Moses…
Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2008
Below are excerpts from U.S. President George W. Bush’s speech to the Israeli Knesset in May to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary. Speaking of God’s promise to give the Jewish people the land…
Men Who Believed
Replacement Theology, which strips Israel of God’s promises, has been around a long time. But in every generation, there also have been men who believed, long before 1948, in Israel’s national restoration.
The Friends of Israel Turns 70
It’s difficult to believe that FOI has been around for 70 years. Well, maybe not so difficult when you learn how we began and what has undergirded our ministry to this day.
Why I Love Israel
And your eyes need to be there as well because the Jews are God’s people, and Israel is the land of destiny. Israel is God’s measuring rod and blueprint for what He is…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jan/Feb 2008
This year—2008—marks the 60th anniversary of the rebirth of the nation of Israel. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish People’s Council assembled at the Tel Aviv Museum to approve the historic proclamation…
Mainline or Out of Bounds
Leaders of the National Council of Churches U.S.A. (NCC) are fond of reminding us of its size and influence. In fact, a Web site reviewing the organization’s newest yearbook called the NCC…
Checking Up on the ‘Big Split’
We were recently taken by a headline that appeared in The Jewish Week. It read, “Evangelical Split Over Israel Batters Bush.” The crux of the article rested on the premise that evangelical…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Sep/Oct 2007
A question raised at a recent Day in the Prophetic Word wasn’t related to Bible prophecy, but it was a good question nonetheless. What is The Friends of Israel doing to reach…
The EC and Israel
Historically, church saints have looked to God to take them up to meet the Lord in the air at any moment (1 Th. 4). Furthermore, said theologian David L. Larsen, “Neither John…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jul/Aug 2007
Zionism is belief in and support of Israel as the God-given homeland of the Jewish people. As Christians, we understand that our Zionist beliefs are firmly rooted in the Bible…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Mar/Apr 2007
We have experienced a little taste of heaven on earth.” This comment, shared toward the end of our recent Christian/Jewish journey to Israel, struck a responsive chord in all our hearts…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jan/Feb 2007
Our attention never wavered as Maway Ananya told her dramatic story recently at The Friends of Israel headquarters in New Jersey. Born in 1982 into an Orthodox Jewish family in Ethiopia…
The Christian Thing to Do
Today’s Christian Zionists love the Jewish people as Corrie ten Boom once did. And the World Council of Churches does not speak for us!
Bulldozing Caterpillar
The Church of England’s vote to divest from companies doing business in Israel is causing a stir, even among Anglicans. But it has made a few things crystal clear.
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Mar/Apr 2006
When swastikas were spray painted on our Friends of Israel signs last summer, this hateful action was not a random occurrence. When anti-Semitic slogans and vulgar images were plastered on the Jewish…
Remarkable Rescuers
When the Nazis systematically exterminated 6 million Jews during World War II, not everyone stood by and watched. The State of Israel’s Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, has recognized the efforts…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jan/Feb 2006
I was approaching the microphone to introduce Walid Shoebat as our prophecy conference speaker recently when a thought raced into my mind: The grace of God is a miracle! But for the grace…
The Anti-Terror, Pro-Israel Sheik
Few Muslims these days have the courage to support Israel and condemn terror. Sheik Abdul Hadi Palazzi, a highly educated imam, professor, co founder and cochairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship…
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Nov/Dec 2005
So said Dr. Yuri Shtern, cochairman of the Israeli Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus, an organization of historic proportions that underscores the growing friendship between the Jewish and evangelical communities.
From Bill Sutter’s Desk Jul/Aug 2005
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces” (Ps. 122:6–7). Jerusalem. The very word stirs the hearts of Jews and Christians alike.